I drove my truck to my buddy's in Hempstead Thursday evening, and I'm glad I did because I needed to do a little tinkering to undo some prior tinkering and revert it back to how it was before, but after that it ran like a top all weekend. My buddy rode with me because his truck is still down, and we met up with some guys we're friends with in a club and cruised with them. Had a 56 Bel Air, 52 Caddy, 40 Ford coupe, 29 Ford roadster, 49 Ford coupe, 28 Dodge coupe, and my 50 Chevy 3100 in the group. Got to the show around 2 Friday afternoon and went through the swap meet before making the normal rounds to look at cars, meet up with friends, and all that. I didn't buy anything at the swap meet, but my buddy bought a "set" of headers that are a Fenton front and a Clark rear header, and a really cool cast finned aluminum 216 valve cover with "SPECIAL" on the top that neither of us had seen before.
On Saturday morning we went early to stake out a shady spot among the cedar trees out by Decker Lane so there'd be room for the club and the canopies so we could sit in the shade and cook. They let everyone in to stage on the main road through the park and while I didn't look at the time, I feel like they started letting everyone in a little early. It was much better than being in stop and go traffic on Decker Lane to get in. Attendance was noticeably down, but it still seemed pretty full on Saturday. I was kinda bummed they didn't have the building open and as a result several of the artists that come as vendors were not there.
On Saturday night we went to the open house/shop party at Murpho's and had a good time there. The truck was happy with the cool night air, and we were running 75 mph with the 216 and 5 speed on the way to/from Buda.
Sunday was a long day of scenic back roads driving to get BBQ in Lockhart and ice cream in Winchester before dropping my buddy off at his house in Hempstead and heading home to Spring. I'm sore and tired today. Give me a bit of time to recover and I'll be ready to do it again soon. The club the guys are in is pretty informal, but we have t-shirts now and an open invitation to any future stuff they do, so I guess my friend and I have joined a car club...
I also expected the show to be bigger due to not having it for a couple of years, and also kinda expected a big surge of attendance for its return. My theories on why attendance was down mirror some of yours- some folks may have assumed it would cancel again and did not make an effort to make arrangements to go. I didn't see as many out of state plates as before, so I'm sure gas prices were a factor for some. I wonder if some folks are boycotting Austin/Travis County in general and/or the Kontinentals club after the cancellations over the past couple of years.
Last edited by EchoBravoSierra; 04/25/2022 4:48 PM.
